Okay, so I think this guy visited me

[conuly]

and the time is shortly before sunset.

Well, not so shortly, but close to shortly.

I've seen this bird before, the first day I saw birds at the feeder, but if he's been by since I haven't been able to differentiate him (her?) from the sparrows. And even now I may be misidentifying it!

Comments

[radiantfracture]

An excellent guest!

[glaurung]

Yeah, lots of finches, especially the female ones, are hard to distinguish from other generic LBB - “little brown birds”.

[conuly]

On a related note, I'm certain I have two species of sparrow visiting - two strikingly different colorations and one set of drab brown ones - but darned if I can figure which species is which.

[movingfinger]

In winter they can look a bit more dusty-drab; as spring moves in they'll brighten up.

[movingfinger]

I've been thinking about this and I'd suggest trying to see the tops of heads. There are distinctive stripe patterns for a couple of common species. I think you're most likely to have song sparrows, house sparrows, and white-crowned sparrows. The song sparrows really do have a beautiful song! House sparrows are the guys you see all over the sidewalk, the others are a bit fonder of shrubs (and bird feeders).

[jhetley]

Unless you get a good view, it can be hard to distinguish purple finch from house finch.

[hudebnik]

House finches have a fairly distinctive song, with a lot of triplets (imagine a fast "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring"). Perhaps this week when it warms up they'll be more inspired to sing.

They can be confused with various sparrows, especially in winter (house finches are redder, less brown) and with the Purple Finch (house finches are redder, less purple, more stripes) but I've always found the song the best identifier.

[conuly]

So let us imagine that, as an atheist raised by atheist parents, I'm perhaps a little shaky on hymn tunes.

[hudebnik]

Oh, yeah, it's a hymn tune too. I think of it as a well-known example of 9/8 time, along with "Rocky Road to Dublin" (which doesn't so closely resemble a house-finch song). And you've almost certainly heard it, without the words, with lots of strings, probably in a shopping mall in December.

Anyway, never mind J.S. Bach; it'll work better to go look up recordings of house-finch songs.